Isabella Potbury

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File:Force-feeding (suffragettes).jpeg]]

Isabella Claude Potbury (1890 – 31 July 1965) was a portrait painter, a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant suffragette who was arrested several times and imprisoned during which she was force-fed.[https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/2344/miss-isabelle-claude-potbury Miss Isabelle Claude Potbury - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship resources for schools] She was awarded the Hunger Strike Medal by the leadership of the WSPU.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

Isabella Potbury was born in 1890 in Epsom in Surrey, the daughter of Harriet Alice née Clapham (1862–1942) and Cambridge-educated schoolmaster John Albert Potbury (1859–1903).[https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8912&h=28653615&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2454&_phstart=successSource Isabella Claude Potbury in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}]

She was first arrested on 25 November 1910 following which she appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court. She was in the dock there again on 24 November 1911 after a further arrest following which she was imprisoned. Potbury was back in court at the London Sessions on 12 December 1911 and again appeared at Bow Street on 7 March 1912 after breaking ten windows with Olive Wharry and Mollie Ward at Messers Robinson and Cleaver on Regent Street in London valued at £195. A student aged 22, Potbury was sent for trial at the London Sessions on 19 March 1912, receiving a sentence of six months imprisonment in Holloway Prison where she was a co-signatory on The Suffragette Handkerchief in 1912.Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin (ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ID8rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 Women and Things 1750-1950: Gendered Material Strategies], Routledge (2016) - Google Books pg. 35 She was released early at the end of June 1912 after joining the hunger strike and being force-fed.{{Cite web |url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |title=The Suffragette Handkerchief (1912) - Sussex Past pg. 8 |access-date=8 January 2020 |archive-date=13 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513063659/https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |url-status=dead }} Her final appearance at Bow Street was on 30 June 1914.[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8 Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914] - The National Archives[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61005/45597_625537_0094-00075?pid=921&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3Ddjv2451%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61005%26gsfn%3Disabella%26gsln%3Dpotbury%26cp%3D0%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26uidh%3Drc8%26redir%3Dfalse%26msT%3D1%26gss%3Dangs-d%26pcat%3D36%26fh%3D0%26h%3D921%26recoff%3D%26ml_rpos%3D1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2451&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true England, Suffragettes Arrested, 1906-1914 for Isabelle Potbury: HO 45/24665: Suffragettes: Amnesty of August 1914: Index of Women Arrested, 1906-1914 - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}]

In 1929 she married the playwright and actor Charles Nicholas Spencer (1898–1958)[https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61596/tna_r39_0108_0108a_003?pid=6365973&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61596%26h%3D6365973%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv2462%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2462&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.75187986.1601388981.1578342500-1722705520.1534682038 1939 England and Wales Register for Isabella C Spencer: London, Chelsea - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}] at Chelsea in London.[https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8753&h=50548069&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2457&_phstart=successSource Isabelle C Potbury in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}] The couple lived at 113 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea.

Isabella Claude Spencer died in 1965 at Chelsea in London.[https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7579&h=44159442&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2458&_phstart=successSource Isabella C Spencer in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}][https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1904/32858_625988_0768-00313/14360245?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/19625471/person/29574283538/facts/citation/155126112904/edit/record England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Isabella Claude Spencer 1965 - Ancestry.com {{Subscription required}}]